Aziza Sadikova
Aziza Sadikova received her first piano and composition lessons at the age of five at the Special Music School for the Gifted in her hometown of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She later studied composition at the Tashkent State Conservatory with Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky before continuing her education in the UK, earning a Bachelor of Music from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and a Master of Music from Trinity College London.
Her work embraces a broad spectrum of contemporary music – from experimental instrumental techniques and music theatre (A Letter, 1921, Prague, 2012; Silberklang, 2016; Alles über Sally, 2015) to the expressive intensity of Romantic tradition (Untitled for choir and orchestra, 2016; Cello Concerto, 2016) and refined neo-baroque textures (Variation for piano quartet, 2011; cadenzas to cello concertos by C. P. E. Bach).
Sadikova has collaborated with musicians and ensembles from across Europe, North America and Asia. Her works have been heard at major festivals including the BBC Proms, Bachfest Leipzig, Wien Modern, Young Euro Classic, Aspekte Salzburg, reMusik St Petersburg and many others. Conductors of her music include Kent Nagano, Omer Meir Wellber, Jonathan Stockhammer, Elias Grandy and Joseph Bastian; among her artistic partners are authors Arno Geiger and Jens Schroth as well as soloists such as Hilary Hahn, Simone Rubino, Julian Steckel and Thomas Gould.
She has worked with leading ensembles and orchestras including Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, members of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Philharmonic Orchestra of Heidelberg, Berliner Camerata, ensemble unitedberlin, BBC Philharmonic, Britten Sinfonia, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Nostri Temporis (Ukraine) and the Moscow Contemporary Ensemble.
Commissions include Marionettes for the BBC Proms (2020), the chamber opera Alles über Sally for Ensemble Quillo (2015), the children’s opera Sterntaler (2014), cadenzas for Berliner Camerata’s CD Der Bach (2014), Stimme im Schatten for Zafraan Ensemble (2013), and Silberklang for the Hamburg Philharmonic under Kent Nagano (2016).
In 2017 Julian Steckel premiered her Cello Concerto with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Heidelberg conducted by Elias Grandy. In 2019 Simone Rubino and the SWR Symphony Orchestra under Joseph Bastian gave the first performance of her percussion concerto Lichtscherben. That same year she contributed to the Bach homage Art of Fugue for the Gewandhaus Leipzig, to a recital project “Beethoven–Sadikova” at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and to an experimental opera based on Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen in collaboration with director Anna Peschke.
Her music has been performed in renowned venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Radialsystem Berlin, Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Thomaskirche Leipzig, Southbank Centre London, Barbican Centre London, Meyerhold Centre Moscow, Philharmonic Hall Kaunas and Berwald Hall Stockholm.
Her works have been featured on BBC Radio 3, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, MDR KULTUR, rbbKultur and the Moscow Culture Channel. In 2014 the BBC World Service portrayed her in the documentary series “100 Women”. She has received several awards, including the Art Advancement Prize of the Brandenburg Ministry of Culture and the European Composers’ Prize.
This biography may be reprinted free of charge in programme booklets with the following credit: Reprinted with kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes | Sikorski.